Decorating the Tree

Forgot to post this as well. Shows how far behind I fell. On November 30th we put up our Christmas tree and the boys got it decorated.

Annual taking of the Christmas photo

Pretty self explanatory. Taking pictures in front of the tree and deciding which one to include in our Christmas card. So here are some of the choices...





James likes playing with the different functions on his camera. Makes for a fun photo some times.

So much has happened

So much has happened since I last posted. Nothing earth shattering but enough that I should have posted sooner.

Jared had school Holiday to Remember program. He enjoyed performing so much. The Vicenza Elementary School 6th grade performed for about an hour. I watched them practice on Tuesday before the performance because I was a substitute for one of the 6th grade teachers that day. I was able to get a few pictures but the lighting wasn't great in the room they performed in. That is the reason the picture is so dark.
I tried taking pictures but during the program the Snowman's hat was tall enough that you couldn't see Jared at all. In this picture so you can the aforementioned snowman and her hat. If it wasn't the snowman hat in the way then it was Jared's friend who was playing Santa Claus that hid him from sight. Then for the evening performance before the tree lighting I watched the kids practice and had the perfect line of sight to see Jared. They left to rest and came back about 20 minutes later. I was able to get this one good photo during the practice. Meanwhile I was still standing in the same spot. Unfortunately, Jared was now standing behind the microphone that had a huge snowflake on it. Yes, you guessed it the snowflake was right in front of Jared's face. So no photographs of this event either. None that worked that is. However, one of the women who had a son (the one who played Santa Claus and stood right in front of Jared) in the program was also taking photos. Her son is a friend of Jared's and they stood next to each other in the evening Tree Lighting performance. So she made sure to get photos of both of them. Now when she gets me the photos I will post them for all to see.

We had our Holiday dinner for our FRG (Family readiness Group). Every military family has a group like that. I made the center pieces for the main table and they were given out as door prizes. While Jared doesn't believe in Santa Claus he did take the opportunity to sit on his lap.
And judging from the look on Caleb's face he was caught by James and his "surprise" photographs. Something like candid photos only he likes seeing how silly of a face he can capture.
Also during this dinner the Colonel of 509th Signal Battalion came up and shook my hand. He thanked me for the work I have done for the FRG. He left this coin in my hand.

This is the first coin I have ever received. Not sure what to do with it. Think I will put it with the many coins James has received.

I know there is more to tell but I will save that for another post.

December 6 - Being Fed

Tonight we had English Bible study with our friends. Titus & Angie and the girls came, they brought Ann with them. Davide & Reynaldo came together. This was Davide's first time attending our study. He is on winter break from college. He attends a university in the US and his parents are members of the church we attend in Vicenza. Reynaldo is a great friend from Venezuela that also happens to live here and attend church in Vicenza.

Today, we learned sad news for us but happy for Reynaldo. He is going home to Venezuela. His fiancee and family are there. It will be such a blessing for him to be home with his family again. We will miss his smiling face though. I am so glad he was able to attend this last English Bible study.

We had a good time singing and then discussing the lesson. The lesson today was "The Lord is My Shepherd". A very strong point of the lesson is that God leads us to the green pastures that we need for this moment - not verdant rolling hills of green that give us what we want and need for a while, rather the barren, rocky hills where there are patches of green that will feed us NOW. Such an important lesson. One that reminds me that God provides for me what I need when I need it and if I don't have enough for tomorrow that is the way he plans it. I need to lean on him and let him lead me to where I need to be at this moment. So we fed upon the word tonight and it was good.

We also had a great time eating dinner and just laughing at the table. At the end of the evening before everyone left we took a few pictures in front of our tree.

enjoy! Merry Christmas!
here we are being just a little crazy!

I think I have a nerd for a son...

Actually I am sure of it. Truth be told I am surrounded by them. However, I am not embarassed or ashamed I am actually a bit proud of them. All three of them. Some days I just sit and listen to their conversations - a bit above my head at times but interesting nonetheless.

Today, I took a picture of two of the books Caleb is reading right now. They are E=mc2 A History of the World's Most Famous Equation and Electric Universe The Shocking True Story of Electricity. Caleb is really interested in so many things and spends hours reading books, searching the internet, etc. I think he is a knowledge junkie.

The three guys in my home talk science, astronomy, computers and math A LOT. Today for example, James and I were in the PX looking around and James was stopped by a friend with a question. They spent the next 15 minutes or so talking animatedly about computer programs, touch screens, LEDs, building a touch screen from the ground up, etc. Yep, this is what it sounds like when NERDS TALK.

Got to love them though.

December 2 - Bartholomew's Passage

Every year since 2000 we have read Advent stories to get our hearts and minds ready for Christmas. We read a series of stories written by Arnold Yreeide. Jotham's Journey is the first one, followed by Bartholomew's Passage and Tabitha's Travels is the last one. This year it is Bartholomew's Passage's turn to be read. The books were out of print for about 5 years but have recently been republished. Well, that is, Jotham's Journey was republished last year and Bartholomew's Passage this year. Next year, Tabitha's Travels is scheduled to be republished. Fortunately, I purchased mine prior to them going out of print. I am purchasing copies though as they are released so that the boys will have a copy to read to their families when the time comes.

Part of our tradition is the lighting of the candles. The boys take turns lighting the candles and this year they are taking turns at reading the story out loud. Normally, I read the entire story except for maybe a day or two out loud. However, this year I lost my voice the day after Thanksgiving so I had James read the first day. I read the second day, Jared the third and Caleb the fourth. I think we will continue in this way. Gives the boys a chance to practice reading aloud and gives my voice a break.

I highly recommend these books. They are great stories that follow the children, Jotham, Bartholomew and Tabitha on harrowing journeys that culminate in the Messiah's birth. Full of action, adventure and a bit of humor, lots of historical tidbits, and every day's reading is followed with a "moral" of the story or things to think on.

Happy Thanksgiving

Despite my best intentions I DID NOT get any photos taken of our Thanksgiving Day feast. I stayed pretty busy in the kitchen and holding a dear sweet 3.5 month old baby. We had some hiccups but otherwise it was a great day with lots of food and fellowship.

So for the hiccups we had a clogged sink in the kitchen. Not a good time to have a clogged sink. We were expecting a total of about 23 people to be participating in our dinner. I really needed to be able to rinse dishes, etc. Not going to happen. On Wednesday we noticed the sink running slow or not draining at all. James took the pipes apart twice and snaked it out to about 15 feet. We also used drano twice and vinegar and baking soda once. It would seem like it was working but anytime I dumped out something that had quite a bit of water in it the sink would fill up again.

This was a bit of a problem as I was still cooking some items and needing to wash dishes. We couldn't even run the dishwasher because we were afraid the sink would fill up. I asked the boys to print up a sign to put on the sink saying "Please do not use". Then we just proceeded to prepare our foods and hope for the best. Fortunately, I do have a HUGE utility sink in the taverna bathroom. After some of our guests arrived I went downstairs to wash some of the dishes and left them on the washing machine to dry.

In the meantime, I made up a plate of goodies for our landlords. They are two little old ladies, sisters, that live next door for part of the week (they also have a home in Vicenza where they spend time.) The house next door also has a hair studio where they take care of their clients by giving perms and washing and setting hair. ~ a never ending stream of little old ladies going in and out of their place ~

Last week I took a plate of pot roast and veggies over to them for dinner. Lucia, the shorter one had come over while our dishwasher was finally being installed (the other dishwasher was completely broken and we never even got to use it). While she was supervising the installation she was also VERY carefully watching me prepare our dinner. I was putting the meat, potatoes and carrots in the crockpot. She seemed very interested and also started looking through a cooking magazine I had sitting out. This was the reason I took over the plate of food. The reason I made a plate of goodies for them was the delight and surprise on their face when I took over the pot roast. The plate had pumpkin cream cheese roll up, cranberry bread made with fresh cranberries and cranberry swirl coffee cake made with cranberry sauce.

I tell you this because it was my intention to send the plate of goodies over with James and Titus (our American missionary friend that speaks Italian fluently because he grew up here) and explain to them the plate was full of tradional American Thanksgiving treats. I figured if James took the plate over they would love him as much as they seem to love me for the pot roast. AND since the sink was clogged I asked Titus to explain to them what was happening and how James had tried to repair it. (Whether the sink was clogged or NOT I had already planned on sending the plate of goodies over with James & Titus) It just also happened to be a fortuitous time to bring up the problem we were having. (very thankful actually that it did happen at this time because of how things ended up - normally we have to call Housing, then they call the landlords, then they call us, back and forth and it can take a week or more to get things done at times). Bianca & Lucia (the landlords) were very delighted by the plate of goodies and asked James and Titus to come back in an hour. They said they would try and get someone to come out that day.

Meanwhile guests continued to arrive, kitchen getting filled with people, dishes piling up (one of our guests had to prepare homemade pie crusts for her pumpkin pies in my tiny, messy kitchen without being able to use the sink to rinse, etc. - she did a good job though of making it work). James & Titus go back to the landlords house an hour later and Bianca & Lucia let them know that a plumber would be coming out sometime soon AND that the pot roast last week was exquisite and the goodies were excellent - particularly my pumpkin cream cheese roll up.

The plumber finally arrives sometime after everyone starts eating but before anyone gets seconds or dessert. Apparently our grease trap was full. I didn't know we even had a grease trap. When the water drains from the sink there is a little tank sunk into our yard where the oil is separated from the water and kept. Once it is full the sink starts to drain very slowly and/or clog which is what was happening to us. So the plumber gets out the very long hose and starts assembling it and then unwinds a very thin cable and puts them both into the back yard and then climbs the fence (instead of walking all the way around - this is amazing to me as he is a pretty short older gentleman around 60 years of age I think) and the fence is the kind with metal posts every 4 inches or so. The big hose is a vacuum of sorts for sucking up the grossness in the tank and the thin cable is a very high powered water hose for washing out the tank. On a belt around his waist he is wearing the electronic controls for both devices (all of the men watching this thought that was very cool). In less than a half an hour he has the taken emptied and clean and my sink drains again. Yeah! For this I am very thankful - here in Italy it usually takes a long time to get things done because nothing is an emergency and everything can be done DOMANI (tomorrow) - talk about procrastination.

So please keep in mind next time you have a problem that needs to be taken care of - if 2 little Italian ladies are in charge you can grease the wheels with pot roast and a plate of sweets. LOL

Happy Thanksgiving to all my friends and family around the world.